Generally described, computer networks can include a collection of a number of computers, such as server computer systems, to perform various functions. In one application, a large computer network can include more than one thousand networked server computers. Such a computer network is generally referred to as an enterprise network.
In some typical enterprise networks, several of the server computer systems may be remote from one another. For example, a corporation may maintain an enterprise network in which a set of server computer systems are located in North America, a set of server computer systems are located in Asia and another set of server computer systems are located in Europe. In one aspect, a system administrator can manage each individual server computer by utilizing an attached display and keyboard/mouse. However, as will be easily understood by one skilled in the relevant art, managing an enterprise network by individually manipulating each server is extremely inefficient, if not impossible. For example, it would be very difficult for a single system administrator to implement a simultaneous change requiring a manipulation of each server's input devices on all multiple server computers within an enterprise network, especially if the server computers were remote from one another.
To mitigate the need for individually manipulating each individual server computer, some enterprise networks utilize a centralized control to remotely manage each individual server in the enterprise network. For example, some enterprise networks utilize a graphical control in which individual servers are managed by manipulating a graphical user interface (“GUI”). In such an embodiment, each server is represented as individual graphical icons within the GUI. Accordingly, the individual server icon may be selected by the system administrator to display various server properties and/or to allow the system administrator to manage the server from the centralized control.
While a common user interface facilitates centralized control of a group of servers, the conventional approach remains deficient for situations in which a common action is to be implemented in a number of servers within the enterprise network. For example, a system administrator may wish to initialize one or more capacity planning measures in each of the database servers within an enterprise network. In the conventional centralized control GUI, the system administrator would then have to individually select each of the database servers and then issue and activate the measurement through the centralized user interface. Additionally, if the system administrator would want to slightly modify the measurement or repeat the same set of capacity planning measurement at a different time, the entire initialization process may have to be repeated for each of the servers. Accordingly, this deficiency is further accentuated for larger scale enterprise networks.
Thus, there is a need for a system and method for implementing a server control interface that allows and facilitates the implementation of common tasks across a server or group of servers.